LAURA BRIDGEMAN. 13 



excited souls utter forth through a throat, untaught and unbred, so to say, by 

 the harmony of developed civiHzation in which we move. 



I have already alluded to the distinction which we ought to make between 

 merely spontaneous symphenomena and those which may be called secondary ; 

 that is, such as have become involuntary symphenomena by habit. If there was 

 such a word as habital, I would use it as a more appropriate term for secondary 

 symphenomena. 



The exclamation of sudden pain is one of the first class ; speaking loudly 

 with ourselves, when there is no one in our hearing, and when, perhaps, we 

 would not wish to be overheard, and the speaking in our dreams, are instances 

 of the second class. These secondary, or habital symphenomena, are also 

 observed in Laura. She does not only frequently talk to herself with one hand 

 in the other, waking or in her dreams, which is likewise seen with deaf-mutes 

 who have been taught the finger alphabet ; but Laura, who has, as will be pre- 

 sently shown, certain particular sounds for distinct persons — names, or nouns 

 proper, if we choose to call them so — utters these name-sounds for herself 

 when she vividly thinks of these individuals. Dr. Howe's tenth I'eport, page 30, 

 contains the following passage : 



" Laura said to me, in answer to a question why she uttered a certain sound, 

 rather than spelled the name, ' I think of Janet's noise ; many times when I 

 think how she give me good things 1 do not think to spell her name.' And at 

 another time, hearing her in the next room make the peculiar sound for Janet, 

 I hastened to her, and asked her why she made it. She said, ' Because I think 

 how she do love me much, and I love her much.' "* 



It cannot be fairly objected that, if all that I have stated be true, it would lead 

 to the inference that the deaf-mutes, and even the blind deaf-mutes, must be 

 able to attain to a complete phonetic language. For, I have spoken only of the 

 impulsive utterances which form the incipient elements of language, natural to 

 the deaf and blind as they are to the hearing and seeing, and out of which 

 words proper, with all their changes, combinations, and inflections, can be 

 evolved only by constantly repeated and enduring vocal intercourse. Yet, it 

 will be interesting carefully to inquire how far Laura Bridgeman — blind and 

 deaf, indeed, but endowed with a sprightly and delicate mind, and an affection- 

 ate soul — actually possesses the elements of our vocal language. 



For this purpose we may classify the verbal elements of all phonetic language 

 in the following manner : 



Interjections, that is, primary phonetic symphenomena of the inner state of 

 man. We have seen that Laura possesses them as a matter of course. If she 

 has not the distinctly articulate interjections of developed languages, it is 

 because her state excludes her from a share in our stock of articulate sounds 



* The tenth report was published in 1842. Laura speaks now far more correctly. The damsel has, 

 even by this time, acquired a great relish for what we would call high-sounding words. C'est tout 

 comme chez nous ! 



